The prior patent of the Applicant's assignee, U.S. Pat. No. 6,413,020 describes an apparatus for vacuum transferring food product, such as chicken, that comprises a hopper for retaining food product and having a discharge port; a vacuum chamber having an inlet and an outlet, the inlet of the vacuum chamber being connected to receive product from an outlet of the hopper, and the outlet of the vacuum chamber includes means for metering discharge of the product. A first electrical timing circuit controlled the opening and closing of the vacuum source so that transport of the food product is drawn into a vacuum chamber from the hopper upon activation of the vacuum source and opening and closing of the vacuum chamber. A second electrical timing circuit controlled the time during of the vacuum pressure so that metered amounts of the food product may be transported. Additional details of the prior art embodiment from the Applicant are found in the '020 patent.
However, it was desired to improve and/or modify the metering of product with the vacuum transfer apparatus and method of the '020 patent. It was suggested by another that a load cell might be a useful device to measure the output of product.
It was desired that the improved system reduce a likelihood that the food product, such as marinating and/or marinated chicken, would lose moisture during the vacuum transfer and weighing processing, and thus dry out from exposure to atmospheric conditions. It was also of interest to automate a control for the ingress of product from a hopper to a vacuum chamber and for controlling an amount of product added to a portioning hopper receiving product from the vacuum transfer.